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+10 +1
Scientists experiment with money laundering
Got some dirty money to launder? Well, Rhode Island scientists say they've devised a method of washing human grease, microbes and motor oil from the world's banknotes using supercritical fluid.
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+12 +1
Botulinum Toxin type H- the Deadliest Known Toxin
Botulinum toxin type H- the deadliest known toxin- has been discovered in the feces of a child suffering from botulism. The toxin's DNA hasn't been released to the public as it has no antidote.
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+6 +1
The Science Behind an Itch
Scientists finally find the neurons that produce the sensation of itch.
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+23 +1
The Chemistry of Sriracha: Hot Sauce Science - Reactions
Forget ketchup and mustard - Sriracha might be the world's new favorite condiment. Beloved by millions for its unique spicy, garlicky, slightly sweet flavor, the chemistry of "rooster sauce" is the focus of our latest video.
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+17 +1
4.4 billion-year-old crystal is oldest piece of Earth
From a sheep ranch in Western Australia comes the oldest slice of Earth we know. Scientists say they have dated an ancient crystal called a zircon to about 4.4 billion years, making it the earliest confirmed piece of the planet's crust. The findings - the first to describe the zircon - were published in the journal Nature Geoscience on Sunday.
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+15 +1
Airborne Iron May Have Helped Cause Past Ice Ages
It seems straightforward: Iron-rich dust floating on the wind falls into the sea, where it nourishes organisms that suck carbon dioxide from the air. Over time, so much of this greenhouse gas disappears from the atmosphere that the planet begins to cool. Scientists have proposed that such a process contributed to past ice ages, but they haven’t had strong evidence—until now.
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+17 +1
Scientists Invented An Injectable Oxygen Particle That Lets You Survive Without Breathing
Oxygen is great, you guys - it's pretty important to sustaining organic life and does particularly great things for us humans. The small caveat, though, is that we need to be able to breathe in order to make use of our atmospheric oxygen; if you can't - a collapsed lung or blocked windpipe, say - you'd typically be out of luck. Until now.
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+25 +1
Scientists Create Element 117, Which Is 40% Heavier Than Lead
Element 117, a super-heavy atom with a long half-life is, according to an international team of scientists, real and ready to take its place on the Periodic Table. Scientists actually confirmed the existence and lifetime of the element in 2010 thanks to experiments conducted by teams in Russia and the U.S. However, now researchers in Germany and the U.S. have created the actual element, which is reportedly 40% heavier than an atom of lead, according to a report in Phys.org.
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+41 +1
IBM discovers new class of ultra-tough, self-healing, recyclable plastics that could redefine almost every industry
Stop the press! IBM Research announced this morning that it has discovered a whole new class of… plastics. This might not sound quite as sexy as, say, MIT discovering a whole new state of matter — but wait until you hear what these new plastics can do. This new class of plastics — or more accurately, polymers — are stronger than bone, have the ability to self-heal, are light-weight, and are 100% recyclable.
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+8 +1
The Chemistry Joke That Got a Student Suspended
Paris Gray, upstanding vice president of her about-to-graduate high-school class in Jonesboro, Georgia, was suspended last Friday when administrators figured out what her yearbook quote meant. It read: When the going gets tough, just remember to Barium, Carbon, Potassium, Thorium, Astatine, Arsenic, Sulfur, Uranium, Phosphorus. So, when the going gets tough, just remember to [Ba][C][K] [Th][At] [As][S] [U][P].
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+22 +1
Minnesota Just Became the First State to Ban Anti-Bacterial Soap
If you've ever washed your hands with anti-bacterial soap, there's a good chance you were rubbing yourself down with a chemical called triclosan--a chemical that's been proven to be harmful in humans in recent years. Now, Minnesota has become the first state to officially ban it. And yours could be next.
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+27 +1
Detoxing: Is the Whole Idea a Myth?
The truth is that everything can be toxic. The toxicity of any substance is based on the amount consumed. You can die of a water overdose if you drink too much of it. “Detox is a ridiculous health concept promoted by those with little knowledge of nutrition, and offers no health benefit for the short term it is used,” says the Principal Dietician at St. George’s Hospital NHS Trust in England, Dr. Catherine Collins, on the “Making Sense of Chemical Stories” website.
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+26 +1
Why bacon smells so darn delicious — it’s all in the chemistry!
The American Chemical Society's Web series "Reactions" explains why you can't resist the smell of bacon.
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+13 +1
Infertility in Spanish Pigs Has Been Traced to Plastics. A Warning for Humans?
A strange catastrophe struck Spain's pig farmers in the spring of 2010. On 41 farms across the country—each home to between 800 and 3,000 pigs—many sows suddenly ceased bearing young.
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+16 +1
Caliche: the conflict mineral that fuelled the first world war
One of the forgotten battles of the first world war was fought for Chilean dirt. Daniel A Gross traces the explosive story of nitrates from South America to the western front
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+20 +1
China creates 55 billion tons of artificial rain a year—and it plans to quintuple that
Back in 2,150 BC, Emperor Yu sealed his place in China’s history of eminent rulers by controlling the Yellow River’s annual flood, saving waterlogged crops. Today China’s rulers face the opposite problem: It’s water scarcity that threatens farms. So instead of the Yellow River, the Chinese government is controlling the rain.
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+14 +1
Nano barcodes can trace bombs even after they've exploded
You may not pay much notice to product trackers like barcodes and RFID tags, but they're absolutely vital in some fields; they cut back on bootlegging and help police determine the origins of bombs. Worcester Polytechnic Institute may have just delivered a major breakthrough, then, by developing nanoparticle barcodes.
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+16 +1
This is what happens when you throw a chunk of Sodium into the Lake
The sodium in water chemistry demonstration is a spectacular demo that illustrates the reactivity of an alkali metal with water. This is an interesting memorable demonstration, which can be performed safely. In this case, the demonstration is performed by throwing a rather large chunk of sodium into lake water.
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+18 +1
When Table Salt Becomes Poison
Lacey Spears is accused of killing her son by poisoning him with salt. What actually happens to the body when a common ingredient becomes fatal?
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+16 +1
Airborne Anaphylaxis: My Son’s Fragrance Battle
I am a proud mother to three wonderful children. The youngest of the three, Brandon, has an unusual medical condition that, sadly, has greatly affected his life. He has a severe, life-threatening allergy to the chemicals (fragrance) used in Axe Body Spray.
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